Call Queues

Overview

Microsoft Teams call queues allow you to manage incoming callers as they arrive in a call queue, and for the duration of their wait in the call queue, until they’re connected to an agent. For example, you can set up a call queue to play a greeting message as a caller arrives in the queue, or play a music file while they’re waiting to route to a call agent.

Note

Call queues support the following audio file types: .MP3, .WAV, .WMA

You can set up a call queue to efficiently route callers out of the queue, to the first available agent, for example. Although it is possible to assign an entire team of users as a member of a call queue via the MS Teams portal, the functionality to set this up from within VOSS Automate is reserved for future development. However, if you’ve set this up on the MS Teams portal, VOSS Automate will allow you to sync in the configuration.

Note

Visit the Microsoft documentation for more information around the recommended call queue configuration, including some options that you can set up in VOSS Automate (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoftteams/create-a-phone-system-call-queue).

At the time of writing (VOSS Automate 21.4), Microsoft’s recommended settings for call queue are as follows:

• Enable Conference mode (Call answering tab in VOSS Automate)

• Set Routing method to Round robin or Longest idle (Agent selection tab in VOSS Automate)

• Enable Presence-based routing (Agent selection tab in VOSS Automate)

• Set Agent alert time to a minimum of 20 seconds (Agent selection tab in VOSS Automate)

Changes you make to call queues from within VOSS Automate updates call queues in the Microsoft cloud portal, and changes made in the Microsoft cloud also syncs to the relevant call queues in VOSS Automate.

View and Manage Microsoft Teams Call Queues

This procedure displays, edits, and deletes existing Microsoft Teams call queues, and adds new call queues, from within VOSS Automate.

1. In the VOSS Automate Admin portal, go to (default menus) Subscriber Management > Call Queues to open the Call Queues summary list view.

2. View existing call queues, which may have been added either from VOSS Automate or from the Microsoft cloud portal.

   Note

   From the list view you can choose to update, delete, move, or export existing call queues, or add new call queues, and your changes will sync to the call queue details in the Microsoft Teams cloud portal.

3. Choose an option:

   • Update an existing call queue:

     • Click on a call queue in the list view to open the Call Queues management page.

     • Click through the tabs on the page to update the configuration.

     • Save your changes. Updates are synced to the Microsoft Teams cloud portal.

   • Add a new call queue:

     • In the list view, click the toolbar Plus (+) icon.

     • Choose the customer or site hierarchy where you’re adding a call queue.

     • On the configuration page, click through the tabs to configure the call queue:

       • General Info Tab

       • Greeting and Music Tab

       • Call Answering Tab

       • Agent Selection Tab

       • Call Overflow Handling Tab

       • Call Timeout Handling Tab

     • Save your changes.

       The new call queue is added to the Microsoft Teams cloud portal. Any changes made to this call queue on the MS Teams cloud portal will sync back to update this call queue in VOSS Automate.

General Info Tab

This tab configures the call queue name, adds resource accounts and calling IDs (optionally), and allows you to choose the language that will be used for transcribing voicemail messages and to play system prompts.

Note

When resource accounts (resource users) are added to call queues and auto attendants, deleting a call queue or auto attendant triggers a system workflow that first disassociates any associated resource accounts, then deletes the call queue or auto attendant.

Greeting and Music Tab

This tab configures greeting and music on hold options.

The table describes the fields on this tab:

Field	Description
Greeting > Options	Choose a greeting option, either of the following: No greeting Play an audio file Selecting this option displays the Audio file field, where you can choose the audio file you wish to use. Add a greeting message Selecting this option displays the Message field, where you can fill out the greeting message to use. The typed message will be converted to an audio message by MS text-to-speech.
Greeting > Music on hold	Choose an option for playing music while the caller is on hold. Options are: Play default music Play an audio file Selecting this option displays the Audio file field, where you can choose the audio file you wish to use.

Note

• VOSS Automate supports the following audio file formats for call queues: .MP3, .WAV, .WMA

• Microsoft Teams provides a default MOH file to play to callers while they’re on hold in a queue. You can choose to play the default file, or choose a file you uploaded (custom files). Custom files are uploaded via File Management to the relevant sites in VOSS Automate.

Call Answering Tab

This tab defines how incoming calls in the call queue are answered. For example, from the Options drop-down list, you can choose to have a specific MS team and channel answer calls in the queue, or from the drop-down list choose to assign specific call agents, distribution lists and groups.

Assigning a MS team to call answering must be configured on the MS Teams portal and synced to VOSS Automate. The ability to set this up from within VOSS Automate is reserved for future development.

On this tab you can also enable (recommended) or disable conference mode, which reduces the time it takes for the caller to connect with an agent.

Note

Conference mode requires that the agent answering calls is using Microsoft Teams desktop client or a Microsoft phone.

Note

There is an edge case situation where deleting a user or a Group entity that is referenced by a call queue will cause invalid data to be shown for the call queue. This typically is visible when opening the call queue in the Automate portal and the group or user ID is shown under call answer settings instead of a name.

This is due to MS Teams still including the deleted resource(s) in the call queue settings response that VOSS Automate retrieves. This case has the most impact if the group or user that was deleted is the only resource left in the call queue. The pkid of the resource (user or group) is seen instead of the proper name in the dropdown and if you save the call queue, it may error out as MS Teams will then yield an error for those resources being invalid.

As a workaround, you can remove the resource(s) that appear as pkids from the call queue before saving the call queue. This will ensure the call queue update that happens only includes valid data.

Agent Selection Tab

This tab defines the agents available to answer calls, and how calls are distributed and routed to agents.

Routing Methods

The table describes routing methods for call queues:

Routing method	Description
Attendant routing	Rings all agents in the queue at the same time. The first agent to pick up the call takes the call.
Serial routing	Rings call agents in the order they’re listed in the call agents list. The call cycles through agents until one answers the call.
Round robin	A recommended routing method. A balanced routing approach that sends the same number of calls from the queue to each agent.
Longest idle	A recommended routing method. Routes the next call to the agent who has been idle the longest. An agent is considered idle when their presence status is set to Available. Calls won’t be routed to agents with their presence status set to Unavailable. Presence-based routing cannot be enabled for this routing method.

Agent selection configuration

The table describes additional configuration options on the Agent Selection tab for call queues:

Presence-based routing	Recommendation is enabled. Disable to send calls to agents who choose to receive calls, regardless of their presence status. Enable to send calls only to agents with their presence status set to Available. This option cannot be enabled if the routing method is set to Longest idle.
Call agents can opt out of taking calls	Recommendation is enabled. Disable to ensure agents accept a call routed to them. Enable to allow agents to choose not to answer a call.
Call agent alert time	The time, in seconds, to wait before redirecting the call to the next agent. The recommendation is a minimum of 20 seconds. The minimum alert time is 15 seconds, and the maximum alert time is 180 seconds.

Call Overflow Handling Tab

This tab defines the maximum number of calls that may be in the queue, and how the system handles calls that exceed the maximum.

Note

The default maximum number of incoming calls allowed in a call queue is 200 calls.

There are two options for incoming calls once the maximum number of calls is reached for the current call queue:

• Disconnect the call

• Redirect the call

  Note

  Calls can be re-directed to another person, a voice app, an external phone number, or to a shared or personal voicemail. When redirecting the call, you can set up the configuration for the redirect option you choose.

  For example, if the Redirect to choice is Voice app, the Voice app drop-down can be set to another Auto attendant or a Call queue. Choose the resource account associated with the destination.

Call Timeout Handling Tab

This tab defines the maximum wait time (in seconds) that an incoming call can remain in the call queue. Once you’ve set up the maximum wait time, you can configure what happens to the call, that is, disconnect the call, or redirect it (and configure redirect options).

Note

The default maximum wait time is 2700 seconds (45 minutes). The call is dropped or redirected after the predefined wait time threshold is reached.